Zambia captain Rainford Kalaba says achieving the country's debut participation at the World Cup is their primary target going forward. Chipolopolo have already proven themselves on the continental stage, having been crowned Africa Cup of Nations champions in 2012, while they also qualified for the 2013 and 2015 installments in South Africa and Equatorial Guinea respectively. However, the Copper Bullets have failed in 12 attempts to book their ticket to a World Cup finals, and Kalaba is hoping they can change all that come Russia 2018.

"After we came back from Equatorial Guinea, we met and went through a lot of issues with the coach and some of the guys who are not here," Kalaba said after Sunday's 2-0 win over Rwanda in friendly in Lusaka. "We made one important benchmark in light of our performance at the Africa Cup and we told ourselves that we need to consolidate our team. "We have one target to qualify to the World Cup. We have been to the Africa Cup so many times so we are now working on building a team to qualify to the World Cup for the first time in Zambia's history."